16

Jun

Four JMC Academy animations selected for the 2014 Melbourne International Animation Festival.

JMC Academy is pleased to announce that four student animations have been selected for screening during the 2014 Melbourne International Animation Festival (MIAF). Two animations feature the work of international students Juan Chacon Olier (Colombia) and Robin Li Wen Koh (Malaysia).

In a major coup for JMC Academy, three films will feature in the Student Program and one will feature in the Australian Panorama. The festival has a heavily ‘art’ focussed program that is usually dominated by a range of traditional and auteristic techniques. The selected films themselves demonstrate the high creativity and diverse aesthetic of JMC Academy students.

Kim Edwards, Head of Animation (Melbourne), says ‘This is a great achievement for our students. In the past JMC has had a more commercial 3D focus, where we made sure they graduated with the ‘meat and potatoes’ of 3D work. Now these selected films show that they can deliver so much more than the technical aspects – they can produce great artwork and concepts as well, which really sets them apart from other animators.’

‘We have designed the course to include a strong complement of traditional techniques, drawing, sculpting, cut-out, and 2D animation, alongside the 3D CG practice. We’ve given them broad exposure and challenged them to develop their abilities to solve creative problems and generate fresh ideas. We’ve also implemented a diversity and flexibility to our production pipelines, including an optical Motion Capture suite, which was delicately used for the feature ‘Correcting Colours’. This has worked really well for our students, and now the rest of Melbourne gets to see their fabulous work. We’re so pleased for them.’

‘Correcting Colours’ will be featured in the MIAF Student Showcase. It is a sweet tale about embracing who you are and letting others do the same. The animation is the work of five students (Juan Chacon Olier, Sahan Gamage, Nur Erguven, Isaac Swinerton and Josh Pedersen). Juan (Director) says ‘We each have our own style and preferences in regards to animation and film. But having a strong theme and story was the commonality we all shared and it kept us on track when we began to steer away. Our individual styles came through as each had strengths in different areas, from the development of the characters, environments, designing the shadow and the overall flow of the story.’

‘Inner Demons’ will be screened as part of the Australian Panorama and is the work of three students (Darren Wallace, Robin Li Wen Koh and Charles Skoutariotis). This moody noir piece features a man haunted by a dark past, with strong imagery driving this ‘slice of life’ feature. Director Darren Wallace says ‘Shot composition, lighting and overall visual quality needed to shine really bright. I wanted a somewhat dark and realistic look but with stylised characters.‘ He says the secret to a good team process was ‘we all gave honest and frequent feedback on each others’ work.’ This film received the award for Best Animation at the JMC Academy 2013 Martini Awards.

The Student Showcase program will also feature ‘Scraplings’ (Natasha DeBakkar and Matthew Parsons) and ‘Parcel’ (Jordan Hardy, Emma William and Katie Plaisted). ‘Scraplings’ and ‘Inner Demons’ were both nominated in the Best Animation and Best Overall Picture categories for the 2013 Martini Film Awards.

The Melbourne International Animation Festival starts on 19th June and runs for 10 days. Watch our student animations on the big screen! Visit www.miaf.net for program details.